


Dates Like Detentions

by AlexIsOkay



Category: citrus - サブロウタ | citrus - Saburouta
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 16:51:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15344208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexIsOkay/pseuds/AlexIsOkay
Summary: When Yuzu goes out on her date with Shirapon, Harumi ends up getting left alone with Mei for a few hours. It's the most terrifying experience of her life.





	Dates Like Detentions

“Harumiiiiin, you’re hurting me!”

“It’s tough love, Yuzuchi. I told you not to go to bed with wet hair.” Harumi punctuated her words with small grunts as she yanked the brush through Yuzu’s tangled blonde locks, though those grunts were nothing compared to the yelps Yuzu let out every time another knot was ripped loose. She looked like she was about to cry at this point, sinking farther and farther down into her chair the longer this process went on. Fortunately, Harumi was nearly done, and with a few more yanks she set the brush aside.

“There,” she said. “All done. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“It was terrible,” Yuzu huffed back. “I thought I was gonna die.”

“Remember this next time I tell you not to take a shower right before you got to sleep. Now,” Harumi went on, looking towards the iron sitting by the edge of Yuzu’s desk, “do you wanna curl it?”

“Yeah!” Yuzu replied, nodding enthusiastically. “I think Shirapon likes it like that. Last time I curled it before going out with her she spent like, ten minutes just springing one of the curls and watching it bounce. She was soooo fascinated by it, it was adorable.” While Harumi couldn’t see Yuzu’s face directly she got a clear view of it in the mirror, and she watched the familiar, dorky, lovestruck grin appear that seemed to adorn Yuzu’s face any time she talked about Suzuran. It was enough to make Harumi crack a little smile of her own.

“Then give this a minute to warm up,” she said, grabbing the curling iron and plugging it in. “Have you decided what you’re doing for makeup yet?”

“I dunno,” Yuzu replied. “I don’t think Shirapon’s really into that super heavy makeup look, so maybe I should take it easy today, y’know?”

“I think she’ll like you no matter what you look like, stupid,” Harumi replied. “You’re freaking out like this is a first date. You guys have been together months.”

“It doesn’t matter how many dates we’ve been on together! I still get butterflies in my stomach every time I’m about to go out with her.”

“You’re such a dork, Yuzuchi.” Harumi rolled her eyes as the curling iron got up to heat, and she picked it back up, starting to take hold of a section of Yuzu’s hair. Yuzu didn’t seem to mind the insult; she simply smiled, leaning forward and resting her chin in her hands as Harumi set to work on her hair. She was silent for a while, but eventually she did break that with a question.

“Harumin?”

“Yeah?” Harumi replied, glancing down at Yuzu in the mirror.

“Why don’t you ever talk about romance?”

“What are you talking about? We talk about you and Shirapon-senpai all the time. We’re talking about it right now.”

“But we never talk about _your_ romantic life,” Yuzu replied. “There’s gotta be someone out there you’ve got an eye for, right?”

“You know I would tell you if there was.” At that point Harumi saw Yuzu pouting at her in the mirror, and she let out a small sigh. “Since when did this become so important to you?”

“Because think about how fun it would be if you had someone too!” Yuzu insisted. “We could go on double dates together, and I could help you get ready so it’s not always you doing my hair and helping me pick out an outfit.”

“I didn’t realize me being single was letting you down so much.”

“I didn’t say that! I just think it would be fun.”

“Well if anything ever happens you’ll be the first to know,” Harumi promised. “But don’t get your hopes up.” After saying that Harumi pulled the curling iron back, letting the last bit of Yuzu’s hair fall into place. “How does it look?”

“It looks great! Thanks, Harumin,” Yuzu hummed, tilting her head around a bit to see herself at all angles in the mirror. “She’s gonna love it. Now I’ve just gotta do my makeup and pick out my outfit and I’ll be good to go!”

“What time are you supposed to meet her?”

“Way too soon,” Yuzu snickered, flashing a grin and a peace sign at Harumi. “That’s why you’re here to help.”

* * *

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

“I’ll look the directions up on my phone on the way!”

“Don’t trip down the stairs.”

“Sorry, I’m gonna be late! Thanks for all your help Harumin! Byeee!” Harumi watched with a bemused expression as Yuzu booked it out of the apartment, slamming the door shut behind her. With another roll of her eyes she turned around, heading back down the hall towards Yuzu’s room so she could gather up her own belongings before going home. She hadn’t brought that much with her, but there were still some books she’d taken home from school sitting on Yuzu’s bed, as well as a handful of her own beauty products that she’d brought over to help Yuzu prepare for her date. Harumi spent enough time at the Aihara residence that it basically felt like a home away from home to her by now, and it didn’t feel at all odd for her to be left alone like this.

As Harumi started to pack up her belongings some part of her realized that now would be the perfect time to snoop through Yuzu’s room, but she was a good enough friend not to do something like that. Besides, she knew Yuzu well enough that she probably wouldn’t find anything new by snooping anyway. She simply laughed at the thought, tossing her bag over her shoulder as she gathered the rest of her possessions. Just as she did she heard the front door to the apartment open, and an amused smile crossed over her face.

“Did you forget something, Yuzuchi?” she called out, stepping out of Yuzu’s room and into the hall. But when she did, she was shocked to find that she wasn’t looking at Yuzu at all. Instead Mei was standing there in the entryway, also still wearing her school uniform with her bag held in front of her, and she looked about as surprised to see Harumi as Harumi was to see her. They were both frozen for a moment, before Harumi let out a very ill-prepared greeting.

“Oh, president,” she said, fighting back a weird urge to bow as she decided that would be just a little bit too formal. “I didn’t realize it was you.”

“Is Yuzu here?” Mei asked, prompting Harumi to shake her head.

“She just left. She’s off to see Shirap- Shiraho-senpai.”

“I see,” Mei replied. Her eyes moved to Harumi after that, scanning her up and down with a gaze Harumi found oddly terrifying before she spoke again. “You’re supposed to return directly home after school. You’re still wearing your uniform.”

“Yeah, I know,” Harumi said, nodding uneasily. “But Yuzuchi wanted me to come over, and you know how she gets when she has an idea in her head. It’s impossible to say no to her.” Mei continued to stare back at Harumi for another moment before, by some miracle, nodding as she started to walk past her.

“That’s true,” she agreed. “I supposed as long as you’re not wearing your uniform out in public it’s acceptable.” Up until that point Harumi hadn’t even realized she was holding in a breath, as if she were genuinely worried Mei was about to give her some sort of punishment when they weren’t even at school, but as soon as Mei nodded she exhaled, feeling an immediate and enormous sense of relief. And then Mei asked another question. “Are you returning home now?” And Harumi startled herself with her own answer.

“Yuzuchi wanted me to wait until she gets back,” Harumi lied. The moment the words left her mouth she started to wonder why the hell she had just said them. For one, she was already walking towards the door with her bag in hand, making it pretty obvious she’d had every intention of leaving. And beyond that, this meant that she was suddenly stuck here until Yuzu returned home, whenever that would eventually end up being. It was just going to be her and Mei, someone she almost never spent time around and was generally oddly terrified of. Why had she done this to herself?

Mei had already started to walk down the hall towards the room she shared with Yuzu, but when she heard Harumi’s answer she stopped, looking back towards the other girl over her shoulder. Her expression was, as it so often was, nearly impossible to read, but it filled Harumi with an immediate fear that she had been seen through. But whether it was because Mei was genuinely fooled or just because she didn’t care to call Harumi out, she eventually ended up going along with what had been said.

“I see,” she replied, before turning and continuing down the hall. “You’re welcome to pass the time in our room, then.”

“Thanks,” Harumi responded, before instinctively starting to follow Mei. She wasn’t really sure why she did that- she’d just been in there a moment before, after all, and she was still weirdly afraid of spending time alone with Mei. But apparently there was some bizarre part of her brain that was just acting without thinking, and that part of her brain had decided that if the president told her to do something, she went ahead and did it.

Following Mei into the room, Harumi tried to do her best to pretend she hadn’t been there just a minute before. She was expecting Mei to say something else once they arrived, but instead the president merely went over to her desk, setting her bag down before moving to the closet. She set about digging out more clothing, and Harumi watched for a few seconds, wondering what she was meant to be doing before realizing that standing there staring was probably the worst thing she could have gone with. She ended up sitting down at the edge of the bed, setting her bag beside her as Mei left the room to go change. And the moment she was alone again, Harumi started to wonder what the hell she had gotten herself into.

Her immediate instinct was to grab her phone and text Yuzu about the wildly uncomfortable situation she had just ended up in, but she stopped herself from doing that. For one, she figured Yuzu would probably just laugh at her, and beyond that, she didn’t need to interrupt Yuzu’s date with something so trivial. Her next instinct was to text Matsuri, just so she could have a distraction, but she immediately thought better of it. Instead she just sat there on her phone, passing her time on nothing in particular until the door opened up and Mei came walking back in. She was dressed casually now, with her uniform neatly folded in her arms, and once again she walked across the room without saying anything, taking a seat at her desk. In silence she took out her books, beginning to work on her homework.

Harumi wasn’t sure what compelled her to do the same- maybe that was just the powerful effect the watchful gaze of the student council president could have on her. She had dealt with that enough at home, and it seemed that without even trying Mei could be just as intimidating as Mitsuko was. But whatever the reason, before she knew it Harumi was taking her own books out of her bag as well, feeling like she needed to look productive as long as she was here with Mei. She could have easily just passed the time on her phone, but she still had some weird fear that would end with it getting confiscated, even though they were nowhere near the school grounds.

While Harumi didn’t advertise it the way some of the other girls around the academy did, she was actually a pretty damn good student. She got good grades, and she found the time to study for exams and do all of the work that was assigned to her on time (a work ethic she still hadn’t quite managed to instill in Yuzu). She mostly kept that to herself, though- it wasn’t quite that she was embarrassed of being a good student, but it wasn’t really the sort of image she worked to give off either.

As good a job as Harumi was doing with keeping herself focused, however, she was eventually provided with a distraction in the form of her phone lighting up and buzzing on the bed beside her. Looking down she saw that she’d received a text from Yuzu, and upon opening it up she discovered her friend had sent her a picture. The picture was a selfie, of both Yuzu and Suzuran together, Yuzu flashing one of her signature peace signs. Suzuran, meanwhile, seemed fascinated by the curls in Yuzu’s hair, just as Yuzu had said she would be. At the moment the photo was captured she appeared to have been halfway through springing one of them, and realizing Yuzu’s prediction had been spot on caused Harumi to laugh softly to herself.

“Is something funny?” Hearing Mei ask that question from the other side of the room immediately caused Harumi’s fight or flight reaction to kick in, and once more she had to remind herself that she wasn’t at school, and she wasn’t doing anything wrong by being on her phone. As she lifted her eyes to look at Mei, who had now turned in her chair and was looking back towards her, Harumi realized the question hadn’t been asked with the judgemental, condescending tone a teacher would use when they had caught a student doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. Rather it seemed (at least as much as Harumi could read Mei’s expression, which wasn’t very much at all) that she was genuinely curious as to what Harumi had been laughing about.

“Yuzu sent me a photo,” she explained, moving closer to the edge of the bed. She turned her phone around to face Mei and held it out to her, and after a small pause Mei slid her chair a bit closer as well. She seemed almost hesitant to reach out and take the phone from Harumi, and even once she did she did so with both hands, which Harumi found odd. Mei stared at it for a moment or two with very little reaction, before speaking up in the same relative monotone she always had.

“They look like they’re happy.”

“They do,” Harumi agreed. “They’re cute together.” Mei only nodded, handing Harumi’s phone back to her with a level of delicate caution that made it seem like she wasn’t all that familiar with technology. Once Harumi had taken her phone Mei turned around and returned to her homework, and Harumi watched for a few more seconds until it became obvious that was as far as the conversation was going to go. Harumi honestly wasn’t sure whether this silence was better or worse.

Following Mei’s example Harumi went back to her own work, and they returned to that silence for quite a while. A few different times Harumi was tempted to say something, to try to strike up another conversation with Mei, but each time she found herself compelled to do so she realized she didn’t actually have any clue how to go about it. She knew very little about Mei, beyond that she was the student council president, and the little bits that Yuzu had mentioned to her in passing. She didn’t know a thing about Mei’s hobbies or interests, or what sorts of things would actually get her talking and lead to a good conversation. Assuming there was anything at all that would be able to get her talking in the first place. In the end, much to Harumi’s surprise, it was Mei who ended up speaking first.

“Did Yuzu tell you what time she’ll be home?” Mei asked. It wasn’t exactly a conversation starter, but it was still more than Harumi expected to get from her.

“She didn’t,” Harumi replied. “Probably not for a while, though. They usually stay out pretty late when they’re together.”

“I see.” Mei’s reaction, as per usual, was relatively stoic and flat, although something about it struck Harumi as just a little bit odd. It seemed… Disappointed, maybe? But perhaps she was reading too much into it.

“Do you need her to come home sooner?” Harumi asked. “I can text her.”

“No, that’s alright,” Mei replied, shaking her head. “I simply didn’t realize she wouldn’t be home for dinner.”

“Yeah, I think they were planning on going out somewhere for that. I’m sure Yuzuchi won’t mind if you eat without her.” Saying that earned a reaction Harumi wasn’t quite expecting. Mei almost looked like she was about to say something, mouth slightly open before it ended up closing again. She looked back down towards her desk and towards her work, but something about her expression still seemed just the slightest bit off. “Is something wrong?” Harumi asked.

“Yuzu is usually the one who prepares dinner,” Mei admitted. “And does the shopping. We don’t have any food in the kitchen.” Hearing that actually came as a little bit of a shock to Harumi. She knew that Yuzu could cook just fine, and it was even easy to see her friend as the sort of person who would want to cook for those around her. But at the same time, as an outsider looking in, Mei had always seemed like a picture perfect image of maturity and responsibility. The idea of Mei letting Yuzu cook for her just seemed to put a dent in that notion somehow.

“Well, there’s gotta be a store nearby, right?” Harumi said. The comment was completely offhand, and she hadn’t been thinking much about it when she said it, but as soon as she did she noticed the slightly uneasy expression on Mei’s face grow just a little bit stronger, and that prompted her to ask another question. “Is there?”

“I’m not sure,” Mei admitted, her voice a little bit softer now. “I’ve never looked for one.” And just like that, Harumi’s image of Mei was crumbling a little bit more. She only hesitated for a moment before, without even giving herself much longer to think about it, she was standing up from the bed.

“Let’s go find one,” she decided. “I’m getting hungry anyway.” The offer seemed to startle Mei. For a moment she was left sitting there at her desk in silence, and while her reaction wasn’t particularly exaggerated, Harumi could see the way her eyes got just a little bit wider, mouth opening slightly as she looked for something to say in response.

“You want me to come with you?” she eventually asked.

“Well… Yeah,” Harumi replied. “I mean, you don’t have to. But you’re hungry too, aren’t you?” Another pause, before Mei slowly nodded. “Then let’s go,” Harumi urged. She walked towards the bedroom door and, behind her, she heard Mei’s chair scrape backwards as the other girl slowly got to her feet. Inside her chest, Harumi’s heart was still beating a little bit faster than it normally would. Seeing that she didn’t know how a phone worked or know how to make food for herself might have made Mei seem less intimidating than she had been when Harumi had first walked in here, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t still some part of her that was left wondering why the hell she had volunteered to spend even more time around the student council president she was so deathly afraid of.

Harumi didn’t say anything else as she walked down the hallway towards the front door, only stopping once she was in front of it to start putting her shoes back on. Mei’s footsteps stayed behind her, letting her know that the other girl was still following, and as she reached the mat Mei started to put her own shoes on as well. Harumi was just about to open the door to leave when she heard Mei’s voice behind her.

“Wait,” she said, causing Harumi to freeze up. “You can’t go outside dressed like that.”

“Huh?” Harumi replied, turning back to look at Mei, then glancing down at her own body. She was about to ask why not, but upon looking down she found her obvious answer: she was still wearing her school uniform. Figures Mei of all people wouldn’t tolerate something like that.

“Do you have anything you can change into?” Mei asked.

“No,” Harumi replied, shaking her head. “I didn’t bring anything else.” Mei simply stared back at her for a moment after Harumi said that, looking like she was considering her options before she came to a decision. She turned away from Harumi and walked over to the closet door halfway down the hallway, opening it up to pull a coat from inside. It didn’t appear to be one of Yuzu’s- Harumi was pretty sure she knew Yuzu’s entire outfit by this point, and that aside, the dark blue color didn’t quite seem like her style. It was long enough that it looked like it would come down around her knees, and buttoned up in the front.

“Put this on,” Mei instructed, holding it out to Harumi. Part of Harumi felt like this was unnecessary- she understood the school’s policy regarding uniforms, not wanting it to reflect poorly on the academy itself if they went off and did something stupid while representing the school, but she didn’t have any plans to get into trouble while she was out shopping, especially not with the president by her side. But she also wasn’t going to argue with the president either, so when Mei handed her the jacket, she took it without protest.

“Thanks,” she murmured, sliding the jacket on and buttoning it up in the front, effectively covering her uniform. Based on the size the jacket appeared to be one of Mei’s own, though it still fit Harumi well enough. Once it was on and buttoned up Mei stepped forward without another word, exiting the apartment and stepping outside, and Harumi followed after her.

Mei began to lead the way down the stairs and onto the main street that their apartment building was up against, although she only made it that far before it started to become clear she didn’t actually know where she was going. Her pace slowed down as they approached the sidewalk, finally coming to a stop when she was presented with an option of two different directions to go, and she ended up looking back at Harumi in a silent request for guidance. Harumi, fortunately, had already taken her phone out, starting to look up directions to the nearest store.

“This way,” she said, pointing to the left as they reached the street. She began to lead the way, and, still silent, Mei began to follow.

The weather wasn’t exactly cold, although it was a little bit brisk- enough so that Harumi didn’t mind the coat, but still warm enough that she probably would have been just fine without it. It had been warmer earlier in the day, but now that the sun had gone down the temperature had started to drop off. The walk to the store was around ten minutes, and as they went along, Harumi quickly came to realize how awkward that time was. Neither of them were speaking, but it felt so much more uncomfortable now than it had back at the apartment. Back there, she had at least had schoolwork to act as a convenient excuse. She and Mei were both working, so it wasn’t odd that they were choosing not to talk. But now that they were outside like this, and there were no other distractions, the silence suddenly became a lot more noticeable, and a lot more uncomfortable.

“So… What’s it like living with Yuzuchi?” Harumi eventually asked. The question sounded a little bit dumb, and even as she was saying it she wondered if that was really the sort of thing she should have bothered to ask. But she wanted to say _something_ to pass the time while they were walking, and Yuzu was really the only common point she had with Mei. It was either that or talking about the academy, which seemed even less likely to lead to a good conversation.

“Tiring,” Mei replied, and the unexpected bluntness of the answer actually ended up being enough to make Harumi crack a small smile. “She’s very energetic.”

“Yeah, she can be like that,” Harumi agreed. “But I think that’s part of what draws people to her so much, you know? Me, Matsuri, Shiraho-senpai… It’s infectious.”

“Weren’t you the one who first approached her when she came to the academy?” Hearing Mei ask that startled Harumi- partly because Mei was actually seeming slightly talkative now, and partly because she hadn’t expected Mei to have known a detail like that.

“Did Yuzu tell you about that?” she asked, the smile on her face growing just a bit larger.

“She tells me most things,” Mei replied. “She’s very talkative. Especially about you.”

“Yeah?” Harumi wanted to say she was surprised by that, but really, she knew Yuzu well enough to be able to picture that all too easily. The part that was shocking to her wasn’t so much that Yuzu would ramble about her as it was the fact that Mei actually seemed to listen, at least to some extent. “For the record,” Harumi added on, “she talks about you a lot too.”

“...Does she?” Mei asked. “What does she say?”

“A lot of stuff,” Harumi answered. “She talks a lot about how nice it is to have someone like you in her life. How lucky she feels. How great it is to be able to call you family. I know she doesn’t really seem like it, but… I think Yuzu was actually really lonely for a long time. With her dad gone and her mom always working… I obviously didn’t know her back then, but that’s just the impression that I get. Having someone like you makes her happy.” Once she was finished with her miniature-monologue, though, Harumi realized what she had just said, and who she had just said it to. Suddenly she had thrown herself off guard, and she quickly tried to amend her statements. “You two live together, though, so you probably still know her better than I do,” she added on, laughing uneasily. “I’m just making guesses.”

“Mizusawa-san knew Yuzu before she came here, didn’t she?” Mei asked, which prompted Harumi to narrow her eyes cautiously.

“Yeah. But do you really want to go asking her something like that?”

“No,” Mei replied, shaking her head. “I suppose not.”

“Anyway, we’re here.” The neon sign of the 24-hour store was a welcome sight after the odd turn that conversation had taken. It was more a convenient-mart than a full-on grocery store, and Harumi knew they weren’t going to be finding the ingredients to cook a full dinner from scratch in there, but she wasn’t particularly in the mood to deal with something like that anyway. Just as long as they could both get something to eat, that was enough for her.

The store was entirely empty, save for the cashier standing behind the counter, and the automatic doors opened onto vacant aisles illuminated by the harsh flicker of fluorescent lights overhead. Harumi didn’t have a great sense of what she wanted, and she elected to simply walk up and down past the shelves, scanning her eyes over the offerings until she found something that looked appetizing.

At a certain point, as she took her time walking up and down each aisle, Harumi came to realize Mei was no longer following her. The store was small enough and the shelves were low enough that she was easy to spot, at least, and Harumi quickly found her at the front of the store, staring down at a series of containers underneath heat lamps with a rather perturbed look on her face. It elicited some curiosity from Harumi, as well as a touch of concern.

“Did you find something?” she asked, walking over towards Mei to get a better look at the bento boxes the president was staring down. Even when Harumi spoke Mei still didn’t pull her eyes away, instead continuing to stare ahead with a cold, almost vacant gaze.

“I’m not used to eating foods like these,” Mei admitted.

“Huh? Like what? You mean… Prepackaged?” Harumi said, causing Mei to nod slowly. Harumi’s brow creased again, and she was reminded of just how rich the Aiharas were, even compared to many of the other families whose daughters attended the academy. Buying cheap convenient store dinners like this probably really was a completely alien experience for Mei. Maybe this could actually turn out to be a good thing for her.

“They’re nice when you don’t feel like cooking,” Harumi said, reaching out to grab two boxes out from under the lamp. “Simple and fast.”

“And they taste good?”

“Good enough.” She wasn’t sure what sorts of cooking Mei was used to, but she couldn’t imagine this would be substantially worse. “Come on,” she then urged, motioning for Mei to follow her as she made her way up towards the counter to pay. She arrived at the front and placed the boxes down in front of her, but just as she made to reach for her wallet Mei interrupted her.

“I’ll pay for these,” she said, and even though her tone made it clear this wasn’t something that was up for debate, Harumi’s immediate instinct was still to try to refuse.

“They’re not that expensive,” she tried to insist. “I don’t mind paying.”

“You’re a guest in my home tonight,” Mei replied. “It wouldn’t be right for me to let you pay.” Harumi still felt that was an excessive course of action, but she supposed she could at least understand the sense of formality that was compelling Mei, and so she ended up conceding.

“Alright. Thanks,” she murmured out, taking a step backwards away from the counter while she let Mei pay. Soon enough they both had their boxes and were making their way back out of the store, though while Harumi simply put her box under her arm and started to walk, Mei still seemed rather fascinated by hers. She continued to hold it out in front of her with both hands, looking down at it as they went along. Her captivation was almost childlike in nature, and every time Harumi caught a glance of her face out of the corner of her eye she couldn’t help but be a little amused by it. It definitely did something to make her seem less intimidating than she had once been.

“The lid is steaming up,” Mei commented, causing Harumi to look over at her, then down at her own box. Sure enough, the clear plastic top was growing foggy, though that wasn’t a surprise given that the contents were much warmer than the air around them. “Will it be cold by the time we get back?”

“Maybe,” Harumi replied. “But we can just microwave it. Or…” After saying that she looked away from Mei, instead glancing around at their surroundings once again. The path they were walking down had street lamps every thirty feet or so, and benches underneath many of them. Getting another impulsive idea, the sort she would have expected more from Yuzu than from herself, she ended up walking towards one, waving for Mei to follow. “Let’s sit,” she said. Mei didn’t move at first, and for a moment Harumi was worried that her offer had been stupid, that Mei was going to turn it down. But, after a second or two, she ended up following after Harumi, and before long the two of them were seated at opposite ends of the bench.

There was some space left between them, though it wasn’t all that much, and the bench wasn’t especially large to begin with. Harumi wasted no time in prying the lid off her box and taking out the pair of cheap wooden chopsticks that had been included, snapping them in half to begin eating. Mei did the same, though the slight pause Harumi caught out of the corner of her eye almost made it seem like she had been waiting, letting Harumi act first and mimicking her actions. Harumi figured she was probably just reading too much into it, though. Even if Mei had never had one of these before, it wasn’t like the process was difficult to figure out.

That said, Mei was still taking her time with her meal, going about it more slowly than Harumi was. While Harumi had already taken several bites Mei was still gripping the first one between her chopsticks, staring at it for a few long seconds before she finally leaned forward to place it in her mouth. Harumi paused her own eating as that happened, watching Mei out of the corner of her eye as the other girl chewed the food, looking for any hint of a reaction on her face.

“How is it?” she asked, waiting for Mei to finish chewing and swallow before she answered.

“Better than I anticipated,” she replied. “I didn’t expect corner store food to be good.”

“Well, not all of it is. It depends a lot on where you get it,” Harumi explained. “You’ve really never tried anything like this before?”

“No,” Mei said, shaking her head. “I’ve never tried many things most people have.” The comment struck Harumi as surprisingly open and honest, especially coming from someone like Mei. She was caught between being curious and feeling like pressing the matter further wouldn’t be a good idea, but eventually she ended up caving to the first impulse.

“What sorts of stuff?” she asked, which in turn caused Mei to fall silent for a few moments.

“Nothing especially important,” she eventually replied. “It was just a thought I had.”

“It doesn’t have to be anything important.” Harumi wasn’t sure why she had said that, or why she was pushing this issue at all, but something was compelling her to do so. Most likely just curiosity, she figured. That, and the fact that this was the closest she had come to having a real conversation with Mei all day. “There’s gotta be other stuff you’ve wondered about, right? Stuff that’s always seemed interesting to you that you’ve never had a chance to do?” Once again, Mei’s response came slowly, and Harumi honestly didn’t expect to get much out of it. She was actually a little surprised when the other girl started to speak more freely.

“You and Yuzu enjoy karaoke and arcades, don’t you?” she began. “She’s told me about going there with you or Mizusawa-san many times. I’ve never been to either.”

“That’s easy to fix. Next time we go to one of those you can come with us.”

“No,” Mei replied, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t be able to. I have student council duties.”

“Then we’ll work around your schedule,” Harumi insisted. “If you’ve got time to come out here with me right now we can find time to take you to karaoke.” For maybe the first time since she had first stepped into the apartment earlier that evening, Mei was now the one to actually look surprised. She paused halfway through her meal, turning to face Harumi head on, and while she still said nothing overt, it was clear Harumi’s words had caught her off guard. Her eyes were just a bit wider than they usually were, Harumi noted, and while she had gotten used to Mei taking a few moments to respond to anything she said, that pause seemed to last even longer than usual this time around.

“That’s not necessary,” Mei eventually said, turning away and looking back down at her meal. Harumi was dissatisfied with the answer, brow creasing down.

“I’m not offering because it’s necessary,” she replied. “I’m offering because it might be fun. You should get to try that stuff at least once. And it would probably make Yuzuchi really happy.” If nothing else had an impact on Mei, the last sentence at least seemed to, and very slowly she began to nod her head.

“I’ll consider it,” she decided, which Harumi figured was the best she was going to get at the moment. And then, a moment later, she added on a soft “Thank you.”

“Hm?” Harumi replied. “For what?”

“People don’t typically bother to invite me places, besides Yuzu and Himeko. So, thank you.” That was, perhaps, the most genuine thing Mei had said to Harumi all day long, and it caused Harumi to give the most genuine smile she had given in response.

“Sure, any time,” she replied. “Yuzu obviously cares about you a lot, and any friend of hers is a friend of mine, you know? Besides… It’s been nice spending time around you for once,” Harumi admitted. “Even if I was sort of scared of you at first.”

“You were scared of me?” As soon as Mei asked that Harumi realized what she’d just said, and just like that the fear was back. She froze up, and then quickly tried to dismiss the situation, hastily shaking her head.

“Not really,” she tried to backtrack. “I just mean… You’re the student council president, you know? So naturally I’m sort of intimidated by you.”

“Is that how most people at the school see me? They’re afraid of me?” Harumi was ready to try to dismiss that question in the same way she had dismissed the first, but when she actually looked at Mei after hearing it, she realized just how much weight it seemed to be carrying with it. Mei’s expression had turned somber- or at least, as somber as it could for a girl who seemed to outwardly express so little- eyes still lingering on the remnants of her meal as she avoided looking at Harumi. Seeing that made her realize that a simple “No” wasn’t going to suffice, and instead she settled on a more honest answer.

“You’re an intimidating figure to a lot of people around the school,” she said. “I think that’s normal for a student council president, though. I wasn’t around for it, but everyone says my sister was the same way. If you’re in a position like that you want people to respect you, right? But I think it’s hard to be an authority and also be friends with everyone.”

“Perhaps,” was Mei’s only response. But as Harumi looked at her again, she didn’t take that single word to be a dismissal of what she had said. Rather, she took it as a sign of consideration. She could tell, just from looking, that Mei was dwelling on what she had just heard. She wasn’t the sort to show something like that outwardly, Harumi had gathered, and she wouldn’t be surprised if they never spoke of this again. And maybe she was just being too quick to pat herself on the back and feel like she had done some good. But she at least wanted to think her words had been something Mei would continue to think about.

“We should probably get going,” Harumi ended up saying, closing the lid on her last few scraps of uneaten food and standing up from the bench. “It’s starting to get even colder out here.” Once again, Mei didn’t say anything in response, and she simply nodded as she stood up, closing her own bento box in kind. But right now, that was enough for Harumi. On the way to the store she had felt the need to fill every moment of silence between them, fearing that it would be awkward if she didn’t. But now, as they started to make their way back towards the apartment, for one reason or another she no longer felt that way.

* * *

 When they got back to the apartment Mei had almost immediately returned to the work she had been doing before their little outing, which Harumi supposed shouldn’t have surprised her. She ended up doing the same, crashing back down on the bed and resuming her own assignments as well. She and Mei were mostly silent as they worked, barely exchanging any words between them, but somehow it was still much more comfortable than it had been the first time around. Harumi didn’t feel that same sense of fear and intimidation she had when her panic instinct had lured her into staying in here in the first place. In an odd sort of way, she was actually kind of enjoying the silent company. Not that it lasted very long.

It had only been about twenty minutes since they returned when Harumi heard the front door to the apartment open up, followed by the sound of a familiar voice calling down the hall. “Meiiii! I’m home!”

“Welcome back, Yuzuchi!” Harumi called back, before Mei had the chance to say anything. “Did the date go well?”

“Harumin!” she heard Yuzu gasp, followed by the sound of feet scurrying across the floor, getting closer and closer until Yuzu’s head came popping in through the doorway. “What are you still doing here? Have you been here this whole time?”

“She has. We’ve spent some time together,” Mei said, now answering for Harumi. And her response, of course, immediately caused Yuzu’s face to light up.

“My two favorite people hanging out together! This is fantastic!” From there she bounced across the room, springing over towards Mei’s chair and tossing her arms around her sister. Mei nearly seemed to jump up from her seat as Yuzu squeezed her from behind, though the reaction still wasn’t quite as intense as Harumi would have expected, presumably because she had gotten used to it by this point. Harumi herself wasn’t spared either, as a moment later Yuzu was letting go of Mei and springing towards her instead, attacking her with a hug that was just as energetic.

“Jeez, calm down Yuzuchi,” she laughed, getting knocked back a bit as Yuzu hit her at full force. “You’re too excited about this.”

“I’m exactly the right amount of excited,” Yuzu insisted, before releasing Harumi from her grip and standing back up. “But I’m also _caked_ in makeup right now. Will you help me clean up, Harumin?”

“You should be able to take care of this stuff on your own by now,” Harumi replied, rolling her eyes as she spoke. But despite that she was already getting up from the bed, and a cheerful, grinning Yuzu grabbed hold of her hand the moment she was standing, starting to pull her out of the room and into the hall, towards the bathroom. Just as Harumi had suspected, it quickly became clear that simple makeup removal wasn’t Yuzu’s true goal at all.

“Soooo?” Yuzu asked as soon as they were out of the bedroom, keeping her voice to a low whisper. “What was hanging out with Mei like? What did you two talk about? What did you do? How did this even happen?”

“You’re so impatient, Yuzuchi,” Harumi teased, smirking at her friend as she was dragged into the bathroom. “I’m pretty sure your date is the hotter gossip than me sitting in the same room as your sister.”

“Harumiiiiiin!” Yuzu whined. “Come ooooooon! I’m dying over here!”

“Alright, alright,” Harumi laughed back. “It’s actually good that you asked. Because… I do think I have something to tell you.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> Two Citrus rarepairs in one fic? HaruMatsu started getting popular so I had to find some other way to be unique. Anyway, thank you for reading this! Putting up obscure fics like this one is always a gamble since I don't know if it will even grab anyone's interest at all, but I'm such a sucker for obscure pairings that I do it anyway, so I always appreciate everyone who takes the time to read them. If you enjoyed this fic and want to see more from me, both from Citrus and from other fandoms, you can get updates from me at alex-is-a-writer.tumblr.com! Thank you again!


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